JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Rising Stars
by Streamline2552
Summary: AU where Jolyne defeated Pucci. The fictional Japanese-American city of Sakuraba, Texas in 2016. The newly-moved Jordain family begins to notice strange happenings surrounding their new home, all tied to the mystery of Stands. They are visited by a Japanese man and his daughter who claim to share a common ancestor with the Jordains-and their star-shaped birthmarks are proof.
1. Chapter 1

**JoJo and his siblings: JoJo and JoJo**

Sakuraba, Texas. Founded in 1954 by Japanese-American immigrants, Sakuraba quickly grew into a bustling metropolitan center, boasting a staggering population of 1.02 million citizens as of 2016, each one of them unique in their own bizarre ways. Sakuraba is a city that openly celebrates the marriage of western and eastern values and culture, leading to its colloquial nickname: Little Tokyo.

The average citizen of Sakuraba speaks fluent English and Japanese, and the commercial center is dominated by advertisements for anime, fast food, and even a local NFL team, the Sakuraba Red Dragons. Most citizens travel by bus, train, or in the case of the more daring and energetic, bicycle. There are people born and raised in Sakuraba who spend their entire lives confined to this lively city. However, sometimes fate brings an outsider in. Tourists are plenty, but relatively few families move into the city to start a new life. This is the new life of the Jordain family.

For John Jordain, the move to Sakuraba was strange. At thirty-five years old, he had already been out in the world as a United States Marine. Though discharged due to illness, he retains his military training and works daily to keep his body in shape. Mere days before moving to Sakuraba, his request for transfer was approved, and he prepares to begin work as an Officer in the Sakuraba Police Department, Ninth Precinct. Although, he is quick to admit, the language barrier frightens him, as he does not speak a word outside of English. He stands in front of the bathroom mirror, shaving his face and combing his black hair back. In full uniform, he stands tall.

It's been three days since the move, and Joshua Jordain has wasted no time getting into trouble. He stands straight, undaunted by the goliath of a Senior towering over him. "Hey," the senior growled through the gap in his front teeth. "Are we gonna have a problem, new kid?"

Joshua puffed out his chest, desperately trying to look tougher than he was. "Depends on whether or not you apologize for knocking me over." His veiled threat was met by a chorus of laughs. The hallway was packed with students eager to watch the transfer student learn a 'lesson' from Big Tetsu.

Tetsu shoved a sausage-like finger into Joshua's chest and spoke in English. "This little shit's gonna learn what happens when you mess with Big Tetsu-sama!" He leaned in close and continued in japanese. "I'll be fair and warn you: I'll start by kneeing you in the jaw."

The moment Tetsu finished his threat, absolutely certain that his target didn't understand a word, Joshua grabbed both sides of his head and brought his face down hard on his outstretched knee. Tetsu reeled back in pain and surprised as Joshua said "Thanks for the warning."

Tetsu pulled his hands from his face. He stared for a brief moment at the blood dripping from his nose. He gave a death glare to Joshua and rushed forward, screaming.

Joshua ducked to the side as Tetsu charged, over and over again like a bull chasing a matador, dead-set on crushing his target under his own weight. Dodge after dodge, pass after pass, Joshua continued to elude Tetsu's assault until, eventually, he slipped on the floor made wet by Tetsu's blood and fell on his back. Tetsu picked him up by the front of his uniform and reeled one arm back to slug Joshua in the face. Breathing heavily, he barked at Joshua "Nobody makes a fool outta Big Tetsu."

Joshua, despite knowing full well that he had been beaten, refused to give his enemy the satisfaction of his defeat, and instead met him with a simple retort. "You got blood on my pants."

With a heavy _thunk_, Joshua was sent flying across the hall and slid along the floor, stopping against the door to a classroom. Tetsu spat bloody spit onto the floor and lifted Joshua up again. "You're gonna pay me back for this nose, kid."

Joshua, clearly in pain but stubbornly refusing to be rid of his cocky smile, chuckled weakly. "It's not 'kid', buddy. I go by JoJo." With his left hand, he knocked on the door behind him. As Tetsu wound up to punch him again, he turned his head to the side. The door opened to reveal an elderly teacher, Mr. Ito. It happened too quickly for Tetsu to stop his punch, and Mr. Ito caught the Senior's hand. In his surprise, Tetsu dropped Joshua to the floor.

"Ito-Sensei! I was just-" He stammered.

"'Breaking in' the transfer student? I know your _modus operandi_ very well by now, Tetsu. You'll be leaving this boy alone now."

Ito dragged Tetsu away, no doubt to discuss his ever-expanding rap-sheet with the principal. Meanwhile, two students came around to crowd the exchange student who had outsmarted Big Tetsu. Conversation rose around him as he dusted himself off.

A girl with white hair in a twin buns extended her hand out to Joshua, which he gladly took to help himself up. Incredulously, she asked him, "What was that?"

Joshua wiped some blood from his lip off on his sleeve and answered nonchalantly, "A fight." Rather than stick around in the crowd, he scooped his bag off the floor and made his way down the hall to class 4-C.

The girl with silver buns stood in the hall as it cleared out, eyeing the door the mysterious student had entered. "JoJo, is it?" She smiled and sauntered joyfully down to her own classroom. She thought silently on something she had seen at the base of his neck when she helped him up, what looked like a tattoo in the shape of a star. "This year might be interesting."

Lunchtime rolled around, and in class 1-B yet another Jordain sat. Her blonde hair fell messily around her face. She pushed it away with her left hand as she pulled out a plastic container from her bag. She popped open the lid and the scent of cold leftover pizza invaded a room full of students eating bento. Without hesitation, she feasted on cold cheese and olives. She leaned back in her seat with her feet on the desk and not a care in the world. As she stared up at the ceiling, ignoring and in turn being ignored by her classmates, the face of the silver-haired girl intruded into her vision.

Masking her surprise with indifference, the girl spoke through a mouthful of pizza. "Usagi, what's up?"

The silver-haired girl, Usagi, grinned playfully. "You have an older brother, don't you?"

The girl leaned forward again, setting her feet on the floor and closing the lid on her lunch. "Yeah, John. He's a cop, why?"

Usagi wagged her finger dramatically. "Oh no-no-no! You have a brother who's a senior in this school: Joshua!"

The girl planted her head firmly in her palm. "Oh God, what did he do?"

Usagi pulled up a seat and sat backwards, resting her head on her arms on the backrest "What? I think he's cool."

"He's a total weeb. You should've seen his face when Mom and Dad told us we were moving here." She threw her hands dramatically into the air. "He spends all his time watching anime and writing crappy fanfiction. How could I be related to him?" She looked over to her left, to see an unamused Usagi.

"Jodi, I like anime and fanfiction..."

"Okay, but you have an existence in the real world. The only time I see Josh getting involved with people is when he's picking a fight."

"About that… Is that tattoo of yours like a family thing? Like how some parents get their kids' names on their backs after they're born?"

Jodi's hand instinctively went up to the base of her neck, where just below her uniform there sat a blue star. "No, it's a birthmark. Dad says it's from the English side of our family."

The final bell rings, students poor out of Sakuraba West Public High School. In front of the iron gates stands a half-Japanese woman wearing a blue halter-top with a purple butterfly in the center under a black trench-coat and a short skirt with long boots. Her hair was two-tone black and yellow and held up in twin buns. She held out in front of her a picture of the Jordain siblings and their father, periodically checking the passing crowd for matches. "Good friggin' grief. Why've I gotta handle this. This is more of Dad's thing, not mine." Her attention turned to the unmistakable visage of Joshua Jordain coming her way. "Gimme a break, I don't wanna do this. Hey kid!"

Against all odds, Joshua heard the woman's call and made his way to her. She was entirely unfamiliar to him, and yet something about her seemed strange, like he had known her all his life, like some gravity was calling them together. "Somethin' I can help you with, ma'am?"

"Tch, probably not. I'm not even sure I can help you, but my old man wanted me to find you and your sister… She here?"

Joshua, somehow, felt sure he could trust this mysterious stranger. "She's got cleanup duty today. I have to stay so I can walk her home, I was just talking to some friends. Who are you?"

The woman put the picture back in her coat pocket and made her way to the school through the flowing river of students. "Easiest explanation I have's we're relatives. Distant, but relatives. And there's a family matter we need to discuss, your siblings and your father too."

Joshua stopped following her, somehow she knew to stop as well. "We don't have an extended family, not in this or the last century at least."

The woman allowed the trench coat to fall away around her left shoulder, revealing the unmistakable star-shaped birthmark of the Jordain family. "This'll have to be your proof for now, I don't wanna discuss anything until you're all in one room."

That same afternoon, at a ramen stand overlooking a Koi garden in Kokoro Park, John Jordain, still in uniform, was relaxing with a large bowl of noodles, cheerily slurping away the stress from the day's shift. To his right, a man dressed in a white trench-coat and hat decorated with ornaments of dolphins and starfish sat down abruptly. John noticed that, despite his hair being black and his hat white, it seemed to be that the hat was a part of his head.

Before John could speak, the newly-arrived man slid him a card, _Kujo Jotaro, PhD,_ and began to talk. "I spoke to your father on the phone, I'm sure he told you I was coming."

John lifted up his bowl of broth and finished drinking before he responded. "Kujo, huh? Dad said this had something to do with twenty-eight years ago… Just who are you?"

"You fell ill with a fever twenty-eight years ago… It was before your siblings were born, so they don't know about Stands, but you and I, and your father too; We can talk freely regarding them."

John left a few bills on the countertop and began walking down the sidewalk. "If we're having this conversation we can talk on the way to my parents' house. I want to know what's been going on with me, and these… 'Stands'."

The Jordains' living room was littered with packed cardboard boxes, still unsorted and filled to bursting with knick-knacks and clothes. Despite the essentials still being relegated to an anonymous cubic prison, Nicolas Jordain's certificates, awards and commemorations were already hanging proudly on the walls. For a Decathlete of his stature, the paper reminders of his athletic accomplishments were meant primarily to remind him of the man he once was before he settled down and became a homemaker. He hung up his apron on the handle to the oven door and settled onto the couch. He smiled in remembrance of more exciting days, secretly longing for the thrill and excitement again.

The door opened, three sets of feet walked in. "Dinner's just started cooking, be a couple hours… oh?" He noticed his two younger children had brought home a young woman. "You're Jolyne then?"

She nodded.

"Was today the twenty-first?"

"Twenty-second, you're off one."

Nicolas looked at his phone for a moment. "Makes sense, no school on Sunday." He sighed and stood up. "Please, make yourself comfortable. Your father already called me, we won't have to wait for him or for John."

Jolyne rolled her shoulder, as if anxiously anticipating a fight. "Yeah, there's a lot to go over, cousin." As the two siblings sat down next to their father, Jolyne opened up a beetle-shaped amulet and began to stare at it, as if psyching herself up to give 'the talk'. "In the late nineteenth century, a man named George Joestar the First lived with his biological son, Jonothan, and his adopted son, Dio Brando. That Jonothan is my Great-Great-Great Grandfather. But George I had a brother named James, whose daughter Victoria married a man named Jordan Jordain. The family line flows all the way down to you, Nicolas Jordain."

Nicolas, for his part, was calm. "I've never heard this before, none of our family records seem to indicate..."

"Good grief, you too? We only recently found out about you as well. If there's one thing you should know, it's that the Joestar line, however far removed from George, has always battled evil. And now, it seems there's a new branch of that heroic tree."

Joshua spoke up. "What are you talking about? What do you mean evil? Like, zombies?"

Jolyne gave him a stern look that said 'close enough, now let me explain.' He fell silent. "The short of it is this: in 1988, Dio Brando returned from the dead, having stolen Jonothan Joestar's body to maintain his immortality. He had activated his Stand unnaturally, and his body sent out a cry for help to all of the Joestar line. For Nicolas, this event resulted in his acquisition of a Stand. For John, who was only seven years old at the time, he fell ill with a horrible fever for fifty days."

Jodi leaned over to her father and whispered, "What's a Stand?"

"I'm friggin' gettin' there." Jolyne pulled out a match from her pocket and began chewing on it like a cigarette. "That year, my father was seventeen years old. He travelled to Egypt to confront DIO and kill him, so that his Great-Great Grandfather's body could finally rest. And when they did, the Joestars who were not yet ready for their Stands became well again."

Joshua stood up. "But what's a Stand? This is a crazy story! How can you expect us to believe-"

"Sit down, Josh!" His father shouted. "Her story is true, John fell ill and I obtained a Stand around that time. If you give her a moment, she will explain." He nodded at Jolyne. "Please, continue. I would like to know more about our connection as well."

"Good friggin' grief… Five years ago, I battled a Stand User named Enrico Pucci. He was the last remnant of DIO's influence on the world. I stopped his plan, but the man himself escaped, somehow. In tracking him down, we came across witnesses who claimed they had seen a family with star-shaped birthmarks on their shoulders, and the trail led here. To the family that moved from Orlando to Sakuraba: the Jordains."

Before Joshua could open his mouth again, the door opened and John stepped in. "You're Jolyne then?"

Jolyne nodded.

"You're father already-"

"I know."

"About the-"

"Yes."

"And the-"

"Yes, did he mention anything about Stands to you?"

John shook his head. "He said it would be better if I heard with everyone else."

Jolyne chewed harder on her match. "Not that I'd know from experience, but I guess it's easier learning about these things when you have a family to count on… John, Joshua, Jodi, have you noticed anything… strange lately? Like, evil spirits or mystical happenings?" Invisible to Joshua and Jodi, a deep blue humanoid creature wearing green sunglasses manifested out of thin air next to Jolyne. It wrapped its arms around her and she struck a pose. "This, what you're seeing now, if you can see it, is a 'Stand'. A manifestation of one's fighting spirit. They grant us inhuman powers. If you can see it, it means you have one of your own."

"I don't see anything…" Jodi whispered.

"It just looks like you're posing for a cover of Vogue." Joshua said flatly.

"But I can see it." John's jaw nearly hit the floor. "And you can too, Dad… Right?"

Nicolas nodded. Beside him, a yellow humanoid not unlike Jolyne's stand winked into existence. It looked thin, not thin without muscle, but without depth, as if it were constructed in two dimensions. "I first came to possess my Stand in 1988, although I never understood how or why. For the longest time, I was too afraid to ask for help, so I've kept it hidden. A few days ago, Mr. Kujo called me on the phone, and tried to explain what he could. But John, when did you get a Stand?"

John shook his head again. "I don't know. I saw yours the other day, and I thought I'd just had too much to drink, but when I ask mine to show itself, nothing comes..."

"This is what we were afraid of..." Jolyne spat out her match. It landed perfectly in the wastebasket. "If you have a Stand, it's our job to prepare you for the world. But if your Stand doesn't come when called, that could be a problem; You see there's all kinds of stands. Some simply don't have a form, or are otherwise bound to your body or to an object. If your Stand is one of these cases, it may be nothing to worry about. But..."

"But…?" John leaned forward against the wall, anxious to hear what she had to say.

"But there's also the chance you've manifested a Stand that may seek to hurt you or others, or an independent Stand you can't control. I don't want to inspire unnecessary panic, but I think you deserve to know what's possible."

"But why is this happening now, and why only me?" John demanded. "Please, I need to know!"

Jolyne took a short moment to breath before responding. "Simply put, your siblings weren't born yet in 1988. Your dormant Stand was activated before your body could handle it all those years ago. It's possible that your body has only recently developed the strength to bear it."

"Bullshit, I was in the military, wouldn't I have gotten it then?"

"Unless it's a special Stand that can't be summoned the usual way. If you want, my contacts at the Speedwagon Foundation can help you. They can put you through testing to discover what your Stand is and how to use it."

John didn't respond. Jolyne could see in his eyes: fear. Fear that his 'Stand' could be uncontrollable, or dangerous. "I get it if you're hesitant, but it's better to know and be prepared for the worst than it is to ignore it and hope it never comes. Dad gave you his card, yes? Call him when you have your answer."

The room fell silent for a long time. The oven blared its delicious alarm and Nicolas excused himself to recover dinner. In his absence, Joshua stood up and wandered toward the door. He stopped only for a moment to say something half-jokingly to Jolyne. "Am I not special enough?"

"If you want advice? Pray that's the case. This business is dangerous."

Without another word, Joshua left the house.

Jodie stepped into Kuroinu Arcade, eyes scanning the room for her brother. Monday afternoons were not usually busy here, and it didn't take long to pick out her brother from the crowd. He was playing at a Hatsune Miku pinball machine, on the glass next to him rested a stack of quarters at the ready. She sent a quick text to Nicolas "Found him, John guessed right." She approached behind him and started speaking, "What was that about?"

Without lifting his eyes from the table or questioning why Jodie was here, Joshua answered "I don't know, I guess I'm just not special."

Jodie wasted no time mincing words. "That's fucking stupid."

Josh's pinball fell past the paddles and he let his head fall against the glass in exasperation. He turned to his sister. "Well I'm sorry if I wanna be special. What's so great about John? He was in the military for a year and now he can see supernatural powers? You play nine instruments, Mom produces movies, Dad was an MMA fighter and an Olympic Decathlete. And now there's a whole other branch to the family that's been fighting evil for two-hundred years? Where do I get to fit in?" He glared at his sister with a look of confusion more than rage, as if to ask why he had no talents, no special skills. "I wish I had something that made me stand out, is that so wrong?"

Jodie thought about it for a moment. Even though they had never been close as children, wasn't it her job to be there when her brother needed her? "Come on, let's walk for a bit, just us 'Standless' kids."

Joshua sighed and picked up his quarters. He followed his sister out into the afternoon air. "So where are we going?"

"I don't know, wherever I guess"

The two siblings walked along the streets of Sakuraba in silence for quite a while. As they passed into an industrial district, walking among the construction, Jodie finally spoke. "You know, I was disappointed too. I wondered why everyone else had one of these… 'Stands' except me. But I guess, if this Stand business is as dangerous as Ms. Cujoh says, then shouldn't we count ourselves lucky?"

Josh kicked a rock into a fence. "Easy for you to say, it sounds like an adventure to me..."

As the two youths walked along, an old man walking with a cane approached them, not as though he were simply walking in the opposite direction, but deliberately walking toward them to block their path. He spoke in a weak and raspy voice. "I used to be an adventurer in my day, so I understand your eagerness, young Joestar." His eyes had rolled into the back of his head, giving the impression that he was dead, or at least catatonic. "But you must understand that 'Stands' are dangerous, they have the power to destroy lives, even entire worlds. Knowing that, does your resolve weaken? Are you still set on obtaining a Stand of your own?" As the man spoke, an old woman began to cross the road on a path to the three. Joshua noticed that she hadn't looked both ways before crossing.

Joshua instinctively stepped in front of his sister as yet another person, this time a boy no older than himself, approached from the direction of the Arcade. Jodi noticed that there was a streak of blood underneath his hat. His eyes were rolled back as well. "What is this?" Joshua demanded.

"This is your adventure, young Joestar." They spoke in unison, without emotion. "Unfortunately, it is destined to end early." The three shambling people were now surrounding the pair with their backs against a chain link fence. Joshua said to Jodi, "How's your balance, still got some gymnast in you?" She nodded. Before the three intruders could react, Joshua had Jodie's feet in his hands. Using his arms as a springboard, he launched his sister into the air, where she caught the chain-link fence and passed over it, quickly dropping down to the other side on the gravel. Joshua jumped up after her, narrowly avoiding having his leg bitten off by the jaws of the young man as the three shambling people closed in. Joshua landed hard on the gravel. Jodie lifted him up by the arm and the two ran into the construction site, hoping to escape.

"What the Hell?" Jodie shouted. "What's happening Josh?!"

Her brother answered through painful breaths as the ran. "I don't know, maybe this has something to do with 'Stands'!" The two came to a rest above a pit in the ground. Joshua guessed in his head that the digging crew was getting ready to pour the foundation for a building here. "We need to get home. Text Dad, ask him to call Ms. Kujo. I'll keep an eye out for more of those weird hobos."

As Jodie fumbled around in her bag for her phone, the dirt beneath her gave way, and she fell tumbling into the pit below. "Jodie!" Joshua slid down the dirt wall after her, both of them coming to rest near the center of the pit. Joshua and Jodie's right hands had fallen against a sharp stone in the confusion, and both were bleeding.

"Sh-shit… That hurts. Jodie, are you alright?" Joshua held out his hand to help her up, and as she took his, they noticed something simultaneously.

"W-wait, Josh. Didn't we cut our hands a second ago?"

"We did, but then… Where's the blood?"

"No, not just the blood, look! There's no cut at all!"

Indeed, both of their hands looked none the worse for wear. It was as if they had never fallen. Joshua pulled Jodie up to her feet and the two dusted themselves off. "It doesn't matter, not our concern. Text Dad, we'll keep running that way."

After Jodie sent the message, the two continued their trek through the site, although something was wrong. As the two approached the fence on the other side, they noticed that every inch of fence was rattling under the shaky fists of those zombies from before. It was a sea of people in the night. And since they were in a construction zone, Joshua realized, the odds of someone just happening by to help were slim to none.

"Oh fuck! There's no way out!" The two siblings stood several meters away from the fence, unsure of where to go or what to do next. But the two noticed something beyond the crowd. A blue and purple… what looked like a roman centurion behind the crowd, and next to it was a man in white they had never seen before, although Joshua noted he gave him the same familiar feeling that Jolyne did.

The man shouted "Star Platinum: The World!" And just like that, in just that moment, the crowd was on the floor, beaten unconscious by something, and the white-dressed man was standing next to them. "My name is Kujo Jotaro, you met my daughter earlier."

Joshua stepped back from him and pointed a finger. "What the hell was that thing? It looked like some kind of Ghost!" Jodie grabbed his hand and looked him in the eye. "You saw it? You saw it too? But I thought we couldn't… Was that a 'Stand'?"

Jotaro thought quickly and spoke, "If you saw it, that means you have a stand now, but that doesn't matter right now. You two need to get home, I'll deal with the Stand User. Star Platinum: The World!" In a flash, Joshua and Jodie were standing well away from the construction site, watching from afar as Jotaro and his stand teleported around, destroying the zombies. The two siblings looked toward each other and nodded, running home without stopping for breath.

Just outside their new house, Joshua and Jodie saw nothing of note. No zombies, no mysterious person, no Stands. They entered the front door hysterically. Jodie shouted, "John, we need the number of that Speedwagon contact, right now!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hollywood Undead - Part 1**

Joshua and Jodie were absent from school the next day. Instead they took a train to Dallas that morning alongside John, the three of them set to meet a man at a Speedwagon Foundation research center. If all three of them now had Stands, the most important thing was that they learn about their own powers.

They stepped off the train and followed a man holding a sign that said 'Jordain' to his Taxi Cab. During the ride, there was some conversation. "Dr. Kujo asked us to keep an eye on you three, so don't worry. You'll all be perfectly safe with us. We have state-of the art medical and scientific research staff at our facility in Dallas, so we should know everything we need to know about your Stands by late this afternoon."

As the cab pulled up to a building marked 'SPW', John couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He stepped out of the car and stretched his arms and legs. He was wearing a plaid-patterned shirt and a pair of jeans. A Gray newsboy cap rested on his head. He wasted no time lighting a cigarette. It was wasteful, they would be going inside shortly anyways, but he needed something to take the edge off.

Jodie was dressed in a pink sleeveless top and black yoga-pants. Her arms were decorated with a variety of bracelets and her shirt was ornamented with gold badges in the shape of musical notes. She finished checking the status of her phone and put it away, trying very hard not to freak out over what was about to happen.

Joshua practically fell face-first onto the ground. A combination of no sleep the night before and not being a morning person left him lethargic and practically defenseless. His red hair was messy and wild. He was wearing a black tee with the word WINNER in bright green under a white hooded vest. "Is it bedtime yet…?"

"No, unfortunately." Came the voice of the cabbie. "Welcome to the Speedwagon Foundation Dallas Research Facility."

Jodie chuckled nervously. "Bet you can't say that five times fast."

The group made their way into the building.

Jotaro and Jolyne sat out on the porch with Nicolas Jordain, all three smoking as they discussed the recent happenings. Jotaro led the conversation. "I have my suspicions about how Joshua and Jodie obtained their Stands. Unfortunately I couldn't find what I was looking for in the construction zone." He took a long drag from his cigarette. "I didn't find the user either, the zombies just stopped moving after the kids ran off."

Jolyne leaned back in her chair. "Zombies… now that's familiar. What did they want with the kids?"

"If I had to guess, I would say another old enemy of the Joestars is back, and they thought those two would be easy pickings without their stands."

"But who? DIO is dead, his son isn't a threat and Pucci's Stand was destroyed."

Nicolas interjected. "I thought you were supposed to die when your Stand is destroyed?"

Jolyne answered quickly, as if even she didn't believe what she was saying, "You do, but the circumstances Pucci created for himself were… unique, we'll say. His Stand had become something more than what it was, so destroying it, somehow left Pucci unharmed. He escaped in the confusion, but without Whitesnake he doesn't have a way of reacquiring a stand, so he's a non-issue."

"He's a crafty bastard, I wouldn't say he's not a problem entirely, but without a Stand he's not our suspect this time, it has to be someone else." Jotaro began flipping through a black pocket notebook, reviewing his notes regarding a number of mysteries both ongoing and solved. "I don't distrust Koichi's judgement but… Can we be sure the culprit isn't Giorno Giovanna?"

Jolyne scratched her chin in thought. She only knew as much about Giorno as she learned from Jotaro. "I mean… I guess we don't know all that much about him. Has he made any movements you find suspicious?"

"It's odd. He took over an Italian mafia called Passione, brutally killed their previous leader, so it may be that he's driven by the same ambitions his father once had. But ever since he came to power, the streets of Naples have become a safer place." Jotaro put away his notebook and snuffed out his smoke in the ashtray. "It's not enough to guess his motivations in either directions, but for now we can't assume he's entirely uninvolved. The Brandos and the Joestars are inexorably linked, after all."

Nicolas looked up at the passing clouds. "This is all very new to me, but if you need help, I won't hesitate." His stand, the yellow, two-dimensional spirit, appeared beside him. "I've had quite some time to figure out Paper Paradise's abilities. I just hope my kids aren't in over their heads..."

"JoJo, when you want to summon your Stand, it is vital that you keep in mind exactly what you want it to do. Your Stand is a limb, and arm and a leg. It does not move because you shout from the mountaintop 'Move, leg!' It only appears when you can feel it." Joshua stood in the middle of an empty white room next to a SPW employee, listening to his advice. "I don't have a Stand myself, but these are Dr. Kujo's words."

A manikin appeared out of a slot in the floor, decorated like a crash-test dummy. "What's this?" Joshua asked.

"The most basic type of Stand is what we sometimes call a 'Punch-Ghost'. Short-range Power-type Stands that function as extensions of your physical destructive ability. As this is the most common type of Stand, and the easiest for which to test, we'll begin here. Call out your Stand and try to punch that manikin from where you are."

Joshua eyed the dummy. "But it's almost ten feet away..." Regardless of his doubts, Joshua balled his fist, remembering what he knew from his Karate classes, and punched straight ahead of him. Before his eyes, an arm shot out of his arm, mimicking his movement and stopping just short of the dummy's head. He felt a pulling sensation, as if he had overextended his he realized that that distance must have been his effective range. He looked down at his fists and then back up at the manikin. He nearly fell backwards at the sight of what must have been his Stand.

It stood tall, humanoid in shape. It's arms and legs were in the shape of pinball paddles, it's joints were bumpers. It was colored in an array of neon. On its chest, the word "HIGH SCORE" was written in English, and on its forehead in Katakana. It floated in the air six feet in front of Joshua, standing at attention, as if waiting for something. It's face looked like a plastic mask, unmoving and emotionless.

The Speedwago Employee, though unable to see it, was certainly able to tell it was there from the look on Joshua's face. "That's your Stand: a manifestation of your Soul. Does it look humanoid?"

Joshua nodded slowly, "Yeah… yeah it does… So then, my power is punching things? Like Dr. Kujo?"

"That is something that you can do, certainly. But Star Platinum has a power beyond punching."

Joshua thought back to the night before, when Jotaro came to his rescue. "It can teleport a short distance… No, there was more to it."

"Dr. Kujo has the power to stop time itself, albeit briefly. All Stands have a unique power that sets them apart. Some are so similar as to be functionally indistinct, and others are so unique as to challenge the very definition of Stands entirely. For this next test, I want you to describe to me what your Stand looks like, we'll try to determine its powers from there."

"I… can't even describe it. It looks like a walking Pinball machine… Maybe it has the power to launch things?"

The Speedwagon employee pressed a button on the wall, releasing a table containing a number of items: a ball bearing, a frisbee, a golf ball, a live rifle round, and a handgun. He tossed the ball bearing at Joshua, who caught it easily. "I'll leave the room, I don't want to risk being hurt if your power is too strong to control, but our research shows that Stands of this type can instinctively protect their Users, so you should be safe. I want you to use your Stand to throw that ball bearing at the manikin."

After the employee left the room, Joshua willed his Stand back into existence and handed the bearing to it. With a stance like a professional baseball pitcher, the Stand launched the ball at inhuman speeds. It missed the manikin and bounced off the opposing wall. Joshua ducked to avoid being shot with his own power as the ball ricocheted around the room as if the walls were bumpers, even crashing against the one-way mirror through which a team of scientists had been watching without leaving so much as a scratch on the glass.

But when the bearing struck the manikin was a different story. It embedded itself in the manikin's head as easily as a hot knife cuts through butter, and the dummy was ripped from its stand and launched into the wall, coming to rest on the floor and leaving a distinct impact on the wall it struck. Joshua lifted up his head and allowed his Stand to vanish. "What the Hell? It was like all the momentum was preserved..."

Over the intercom, one of the scientists observing the room spoke to Joshua. "Your Stand seems to have the power to preserve kinetic energy in objects that it throws. It bounces off of stationary objects without transferring any energy at all and strikes movable things with incredible impact."

As Joshua inspected the fallen dummy and the bearing lodged in its simulated skull. The Spedwagon Employee returned to the room. "Impressive, you can turn anything into a Pinball! Have you got a name in mind for it?"

Joshua summoned his Stand again but remained crouched on the ground. His Stand appeared to float behind him, lying back as if on a sofa or a bed with its arms and legs crossed. "It's like magic… I can make pinballs out of magic. I've become a 'Pinball Wizard'."

Jotaro entered the Kitchen where his daughter and cousin were preparing dinner. "Mr. Jordain, I've just received word from the foundation that Joshua and Jodie have manifested their Stands. Josh uses a Short-Range Power-type like mine, Jodie has a Long-range power with a focus on Speed. John still hasn't gotten his to appear, but they think they've narrowed it down to a Bound Stand."

"What, so his stand is part of his body?" Jolyne asked. "Maybe it's an integrated power, like my Stone Free..."

"Or it could be bound to an object that's important to him. Regardless, the Foundation wants to keep your kids a bit longer than planned for additional testing. Are you okay with that?"

Nicolas put down his spoon for a moment. "I suppose it's for the best. I have no doubts that John can be responsible for his brother and sister, he's an adult after all."

Jolyne interrupted "Mr. Jordain, your noodles are boiling over."

"SHIT!"

An unmarked black van sat in the parking lot of the SPW Dallas building. The driver's side door opened, and from inside stepped out a police officer in SWAT gear. His skin looked pale, and his eyes were obscured by dark sunglasses. He knew that the Jordains were inside, he could feel it. All he needed to do was find them before they could learn to control their Stands.

He grinned.

John sat down on the metal chair. His siblings had been sitting at the table for quite some time by the time he'd gotten there. "Any luck for the two of you? I'm exhausted." In response, Joshua and Jodi both summoned their stands. Joshua's Stand, Pinball Wizard, appeared just as it had earlier. Jodi's had taken the form of a porcelain-skinned woman wearing a flowing, Greek-style dress in Green and Yellow with a Pink sash around the waist. In its hands it held a silver violin with golden strings and golden detail work like laurel leaves all along the body. The Stand sported two wings, the left black, the right white, both covered in angelic feathers.

John sighed. "So you two got the 'punch-ghosts', lucky. My Stand can only manifest itself while I'm holding a gun. How specific is that?" He leaned his chin on his hand. "Honestly, I'm so tired, they had me practically running drills, trying to push me until the Stand manifested. I don't know how much more annoying this Stand business is gonna get."

Just then, the moment that sentence exited John's lips, the lights in the room exploded. All at once, all without warning, the illumination vanished in a shower of sparks and glass. John shouted "Get down!" and tackled his siblings to the floor moments before a gunshot rang through the air, impacting the table where the three had been sitting. A smoking hole appeared in the table, centimeters from where Joshua's hands were resting before.

The room swarmed with SWAT-equipped Speedwagon Guards who escorted out the scientists and the Jordains while the squad secured the room. The three siblings stood together in anxious anticipation of the next attack. The guard closest to them warned them. "Don't send out your Stands, don't try to fight until we know what we're dealing with."

Joshua stepped in front of the guard with his arms outstretched. "Why the Hell not? If it's a Stand User, we should be able to fight them." His hand was pulled away by his older brother.

"We don't have any combat experience. Well, I do, but nothing like this! And we don't want to give away that kind of information if we don't need to. He's right, leave it to the guards." He turned to face the guard closest to the group. "That being said, I'd like to be able to defend myself if the need does arrive, do you have a spare gun?"

The guard raised his eyebrow.

"My Stand binds itself to guns, apparently."

The guard nodded and reached into his holster, brandishing a Glock for John to take. "If you weren't a cop, things wouldn't be so simple, you know. Keep yourself armed everywhere you go if that's what your Stand needs." John took the gun, checked that it was loaded, and removed the magazine, handing it back to the guard. "I don't need bullets, just the gun will do." He moved the slide and removed the bullet in the chamber with the calm experience of a professional. "Alright, just in case..."

The door to the room they had just evacuated opened up with the sound of "All clear", and out came the five soldiers. "There's no shooter, and one of our own is dead! Get the Stand Users, something's up!"

The guard next to the Jordains motioned for them to come with. Another guard objected, "Sir, protocol nine-four-nine clearly states-"

"Time of emergency: If there's a Stand we need someone who can see it. Get them inside." The three siblings nodded and ventured in without a word between them. No sooner had they entered than John stopped in his tracks. "Let us go in with the five guards that just came out, and nobody else." The guards, being non-Stand Users, acquiesced instantly. The door closed behind them. "Alright, you five show me where you found the body." The guards led them to a man in SWAT gear with pale skin and sunglasses. He had a rifle next to him with a smoking barrel. John rolled up the dead man's sleeve and placed two fingers on his wrist. "He's dead alright… But the body is cold..."

The seven others in the room looked around, each trying to make sense of these bizarre circumstances. One of the officers spoke next, "How could his body be cold already? And why is his rifle barrel hot? There was only one shot..." His expression betrayed that the truth had suddenly dawned on him. "No… Was the shooter one of our own? But why?"

John stood up and shook his head. "No, it wasn't him. He died well before today. Look under his sunglasses!" One of the officers lifted up the man's sunglasses to reveal that one of his eyes was replaced with a bullet hole, and certainly not a fresh one at that. "If he had sustained that wound right here and now, his glasses would have been broken from the bullet."

Jodie covered her face to avoid gagging at the sight. Nevertheless she remained in the conversation. "But then how…? Unless… Joshua, it's the user from last night!"

Joshua assumed a defensive stance and backed away from the body. He turned to the Speedwagon guards to explain. "Last night, we were attacked by a Stand that could summon zombies. Dr. Kujo said he never found the user… What if he's followed us here to finish the job?" Just then, the guard standing between Joshua and the body fell over with a knife in his head. As the group turned to look, they saw that the corpse had stood up on its own. Without words, the remaining four guards riddled the corpse with a volley of bullets. The volley ended, and the corpse remained standing. It smiled a bloody smile and fired its rifle at the remaining guards; one, two, three, four perfect headshots as the Stand Users ducked for cover.

The corpse began to laugh maniacally, "You idiots! If I can make dead bodies move, what good will killing it deader do? And now you'll all pay by becoming the servants of my Stand: Hollywood Undead! And soon..." He pointed a decaying hand at the spot where the Jordains had hidden as his five new bodies rose from the ground, "You blood of the Joestars will die next!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hollywood Undead - Part 2**

The bodies of the four Speedwagon Guards rose slowly from the floor at the long-dead corpse continued to taunt the hiding Jordains. "As if bullets could harm a Stand! And as long as my Stand is hiding inside these dead bodies, I'm untouchable, an army of six! A very 'Deep Six' for you and your brothers, sweet little Jodie!" The corpse began to vigorously lick his cracked lips with a dry and rotting tongue. "Leedleedleedleee… Go ahead and scream for me!"

Jodie was fighting off the urge not to vomit at the thought of interacting with the zombies. But at that taunt, she rolled out from behind her cover and shouted, "With pleasure: Street Violin!" Her angelic, porcelain stand manifested in the air before her, absorbing and shielding Jodie from a wave of rifle fire. Without changing the expression on its face, it brought up the bow to the strings of its instrument and belted out an unfocused wave of high-pressure wind that blew the six bodies against the far wall. Jodie stood behind her Stand with her back to it, balancing on her right foot with her arms mimicking the grip of a violinist. "You're messing with the wrong little girl!"

The six bodies stood back up, shambling to their feet and ripping off their helmets as they picked their guns back up off the ground. The bodies spoke in unison with the Stand. "What part of 'you can't hurt me' do you assholes not understand? These meatbags cushioned the blow of your Stand, and even if you shot them to get at me, bullets can't hurt me!" The six bodies fired their guns again and Jodie's Stand began to play a harsh tune that deflected the storm.

From beside her, the familiar technicolor form of Pinball Wizard emerged, "Look out!" Joshua shouted as his Stand punched away a stray bullet aimed at his sister's exposed side. The bullet ricocheted off his Stand's fist, off an overturned table, and into the forehead of one of the six zombies. Jodie looked at him, confused. "But how, all of them are right in front of me, so how did one of their bullets get behind me?"

Pinball wizard stood up tall as Joshua stepped out of hiding and pointed menacingly at the five standing corpses. "Gimme a break… It was pretty clever, using that table to bounce a bullet behind her 'sound wall', but did you consider the possibility that you would be giving my Pinball Wizard 'moving ammunition'?"

The five standing zombies laughed heartily and creepily, "Except a bullet still can't hurt a Stand! What don't you get about that?" One of the zombies kicked the one that had fallen. "Hey, get up… Huh?!" The wound in the corpse's forehead was open and bleeding, and leaking out of it, aside from blood and brains, was a sickly lime-green worm, or at least the remains of one. The five bodies jumped back in disbelief, "But how! Only a Stand can harm another Stand!"

"That's the power of my Pinball Wizard, it 'charges' objects with energy. I guess since that energy comes from the Stand it becomes an extension of my Stand's powers. That's gonna be helpful information..." Joshua pulled out from his pocket a handful of ball bearings, "...for when I use your creepy Stand for target practice!" He flicked the first bearing into the air and his Stand flicked it with its fingers, sending it flying at the skull of the second body. One perfect headshot sent the Stand inside of it flying in pieces across the room. "So your Stand always hides in the 'brain', huh? Every time? That'll make aiming even easier!" Before he could launch a second bearing, he was knocked off his feet by an explosion and he and his sister were trapped under fallen debris.

The first zombie threw away his explosive trigger and began to laugh. "Ohoho, now this gets me giggling like a little schoolgirl on her way to buy her favorite flavor of ice cream on a Saturday morning! Now all we have left is you… die, John Jordain!" The four remaining bodies fired one more hail of bullets against John, who reacted by swinging his Glock as if it were a sword. Red powder was sprayed into the air in front of him. There was a spark, an explosion. In less than a second, the hail of gunfire had been reduced to ash. From beyond the smoke, John knelt on one knee, holding the Glock in his hand; It had transformed, the barrel replaced with a twenty-inch long bright red blade and a muzzle beneath it that resembled an exhaust pipe on a car. The sides of the blade read **BANG x BANG**. "I don't feel like dying today."

"What the Hell is this? I was assured that you had no idea how to summon your Stand! What gives?"

"I figured it out..." John held gun arm out extended and kept his left arm close to his body as if holding a shield or parrying dagger. "Let's see if you can pull that trick on me again… Come at me, you rotten bastard!" He charged forward, blocking shot after shot with his stand. By the time he reached the far wall, each of the four rifles had run out of ammunition. He jammed his sword into the skull of one of the corpses and pulled the trigger on the Glock. A spark ran down the blade, igniting a small cloud of red powder from the muzzle. "Bang Bang!" John cried, and the resulting explosion vaporized the head of the corpse, freeing the blade. In a matter of seconds, the two newly-dead soldiers followed, leaving only the original behind, slowly backing up and away from the sword as Joshua and Jodie finished pulling themselves out of the rubble.

John held the sword up to the corpse's throat. "If your Stand dies so do you, yes? Tell me what you're after before I cut what's left of you up."

The remaining corpse unleashed a maniacal laugh laced with sprays of blood and rotten breath. "You idiots… still haven't figured out… My Stand isn't here, moron! At least, nothing more than the Sub-Stands I use to make puppets out of shit-kicking rookies like you!"

"What did you say? Then where is your Stand?!"

"Oh I'm far enough away from you three, why bother putting myself at risk? I figured just six Undeads should have been enough to handle three losers. Imagine my surprise that you've unlocked your Stands already… Yes… I was surprised indeed, but never defeated! And since I can't really feel pain, you'll never be able to get me to talk. I'll never tell-" his train of thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a large hole in his head. Dead before he could lose his balance, the corpse stood straight for a long moment before finally falling back.

John dismissed his Stand and the Glock returned to its original form as Joshua walked up behind him, rolling his shoulder to fight the stiffness that comes with being assaulted by an exploding ceiling. "He was done talking."

John turned to face his younger brother. "We need to call Dr. Kujo, right now."

Jolyne and Nicolas faced each other with serious expressions, a determination not to allow their weakness to show. Jolyne, with a string she unraveled from one of her toes, silently switched one of the cards in her hand with a card from under her seat. As she did so, Nicolas stealthily produced a card of his own from under his sleeve. He asked Jolyne, "And cards to swap?"

"Now, let's see what we've got! Royal Straight!" She revealed her hand, crucially including the Ace of Hearts.

Nicolas laid his hand down on the table,"Royal Flush, hearts..."

The two stared for a moment at the hands on the board. Jolyne slammed her left hand on the table, stood up out of her seat and shouted "You cheating bastard! What kind of message are you gonna send to your kids if this is how you play?!"

Nicolas leapt up in response and shouded just as loudly, "Now don't you go calling the kettle black! Where do you get off leveling accusations at me when you've been in prison before?!"

Jotaro walked in, enjoying a cup of unsweetened black tea. He watched the commotion for a moment, ignoring cries of "So what if I've been to prison before, does that somehow make me untrustworthy?" He approached the table and used Star Platinum to pick a card out of the deck and flip it onto the table: a third Ace of Hearts. "Good grief… Will you two just play fair if you're gonna be this way?"

Jolyne and Nicolas stared silently at the third identical card. In the blink of an eye, they were back to their seated positions, Nicolas shuffling the deck for the next deal, adding quietly "So we'll invalidate that round..."

Jotaro sighed over his cup of tea. His pocket buzzed. He pulled out his cell phone and answered the call, "Kujo." His eyes narrowed. "Understood. We're on our way." He hung up the phone and placed his empty teacup on the table. "Jolyne, we're going."

"Hey, hey, hey, I thought we were waiting for the kids to get back? Something happen?"

"It seems we're going to be reinstating our initial investigation: I've received word that a man matching the description of one Enrico Pucci has been sighted in Missouri. We'll be taking a SPW plane to Phoenix."

Jolyne stood back up, nonchalantly recovering hidden cards from all over the dining room with her strings, unconcerned that her cheating should be covert at this point. "Well, it was fun cousin."

Nicolas pushed in his chair as he moved to get the door for his guests. "I suppose it can't be helped… But there was more we were hoping you could teach us."

"Stands are something you usually figure out on your own." Jotaro straightened his hat as Jolyne gave him a 'no shit' look. "We gave the four of you a head start, but until we follow this lead to its end, you'll just have to make do without our guidance."

"I figured it out without help, the four of you should be more than capable."

"I'm not worried about that." Nicolas admitted, "I'm afraid that trouble is going to find my kids."

After all, 'Gravity' has a way of bringing 'Stand Users' together.

In a brightly lit room, adorned with priceless busts and paintings from every era, a single shirtless man sat at the head of a long table with eight empty chairs. He had impossibly long violet hair and bright rose eyes, and the muscles on his chest and back were ornamented with brutal scarring, years' worth of it. He sipped on a glass of extremely expensive champagne. He spoke to himself in a slow, deep baritone, "So, the Joestars have once again defied the whims of 'Fate'? I question the point of fortune-telling or future-gazing if such predictions are doomed to be foiled by a factor as commonplace as that accursed blood. DIO failed, Kars failed, Pucci failed… What else is left for the Joestar line but to be brought to heel by me personally?" He swirled the champagne in his glass pensively. "Although, I suppose a lack of information is what led to the failure of Hollywood Undead… Perhaps it's best I test them and gauge their ultimate potential… before I do anything rash..."

A door opened into the brightly lit room and a woman entered, dressed in a three-piece suit. That is, a man's three-piece suit that had been fitted to a woman's proportions. "Master, I've received word that Hollywood Undead's user is continuing his hunt, against orders." The man lifted up one hand as if to say 'speak no more'.

He finished his glass of champagne and stood up, chiseled muscles and pink scar-tissue glistening in the light. "Muscles and scars are things that bring me great joy. Do you know why, Marcie?" His subordinate knew better than to answer, than to interrupt a dialogue for one. He continued, "What are muscles and scars, if not evidence of what you have lost and what you have gained?" He ran one of his fingers along his left shoulder, trailing a particularly deep scar that reached almost the whole circumference of his neck. "Experience. They are both trophies of one's experience. If I were to lose my left arm tonight, would I have lost or gained?"

He had addressed her directly, she knew that he would be expecting a swift answer. She didn't know if she should give him the 'right' answer or the 'wrong' one. She decided he was most likely going to make his speech dependant upon her answering his question incorrectly. "Master, you would lose an arm. Is that not a loss?"

"A fool might think so, and perhaps it is only a foolish man who would allow his arm to be 'lost'." Perhaps as punctuation, he thrust his right arm down and shattered the chair he had been sitting in. It would have been enough to break a leg or to snap the seat in half, but the entire chair, in his eye, for his 'point' to be made, had to be reduced to splinters unfit to even be called wood. "But if the fool who 'lost' his arm were to survive, then the next time he and his enemy met, he would no longer be a fool. He has gained 'experience', you see, Marcie? He has learned a valuable lesson from defeat. And so I ask you this, is Hollywood Undead's user a 'fool'?"

"He has disobeyed orders from you. I would call that a fool. He'll risk having his former comrades hunt him down like a rabid possum that's been eating out of the trash and put him to death. That is what a 'fool' would do."

"Perhaps so… But he survived two 'losses' against Joestar blood." The man picked up a splinter from his former chair and passively flicked it across the room, to land upon some lonely, clean tile. "And if he's gained enough 'experience', if he's learned from those 'losses'... If he's no longer a 'fool', he may yet succeed where the 'old' him failed. Either that," He smiled as he placed his hand on his subordinate's shoulder, uncomfortably close to her neck and for uncomfortably long, "or the Joestars will eliminate him for me. I may 'lose' a dear ally," He leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "but in the end, it is I who will gain the 'experience' from this exchange."

He separated from his subordinate. "Now, about the 'other business', have you sent it?"

Marcie nodded, not once losing her composure, regardless of how much her 'Master' frightened her. "Yes, Jotaro and Jolyne have been removed from Sakuraba, they are currently chasing a 'ghost' of Enrico Pucci."

The man grinned and chuckled deeply to a joke, the answer to which only he was privy. "Pucci, even in the shadow of your abysmal 'loss', I have found a way to 'gain'... Thank you, my friend."

The SPW Dallas building had calmed down since the excitement of that morning. Aside from the tragic loss of six Guards, nobody had been seriously hurt in Hollywood Undead's attack. Joshua, while the scrape that the rubble had left on his leg was being wrapped up in gauze, asked one of the Scientists nearby, "So, is this gonna be our life now? Being attacked everywhere we go?" He was melancholy and pensive, so very much unlike the boy who, just the night before, had begged Fate for an adventure. There was a real fear behind his voice.

The scientist nodded, "I'm afraid it just might be. There is a 'gravity' that brings 'Stand Users' together. Wherever you go, you will be destined to meet them. You may not recognize their powers immediately, you may never even speak nor interact once, but you will meet them. Some may become your friends, and others your mortal enemies, but isn't that up to you to decide?" The scientist turned away from Joshua to face where Hollywood Undead had attacked. "It can be said that 'Fate' is just an 'opportunity', and it's what we choose to do with that 'opportunity' which shapes our 'destiny'. I can think of so many things that would be different, not if 'Fate' had dealt different cards, but if people had played the cards they had in different ways... But I suppose such thoughts are better left to the 'Stand Users'."

Joshua sat in silence as he pondered the day's developments. More than that, he pondered on the nature of the 'cards' that 'Fate' had dealt him. He stared at his left palm, which should have had a cut on it from being pierced the night before. "Is this really happening?" He thought to himself, "Is it happening because I wished for an adventure? Are people dying because of what I selfishly wished for?" He stood up straight and tested his wrapped leg. "It was just a scarpe, doc, I should be alright to go." The doctor nodded, answering what he could plainly tell was a statement, and not a request for professional medical advice. But if he had been expecting Joshua to say "Well I guess I should stay hydrated and get plenty of rest," then he wouldn't be a member of the Speedwagon foundation tending to the endless wounds of Stand Users.

Joshua wondered to himself as he approached his sister holding an ice pack to her forehead. "'Stand Users' are drawn to each other by something like 'gravity'? And if we've met 'Stand Users' before, we may not even realize it, we may never even share a word… I wonder, have I met one yet? Have I met someone in the City of Sakuraba that could be considered an 'ally'? How would I know…?"

"Bye, Usagi!"

As Usagi Shiroko's friends scattered away like as many leaves to the cold, thieving wind, she kicked a rock on the ground, rolling it an unsatisfying meter away. "God… Why do I feel so down lately? That JoJo… He seemed like he could 'understand' me, but he couldn't see… He didn't act like he could see my 'Imaginary Friend' when I brought it out in front of him. Maybe he's not special." She kicked the rock again, this time barely rolling it any distance at all, which only further served to exasperate her. "Maybe there really is nobody who can really, truly 'understand me', maybe my power is completely unique. If it's really 'imaginary', I wouldn't be able to 'affect' the world like I do, so it has to be real… But still, I have to question why I'm the only one with a power like this." She stared up at the moonlit sky above the streets of the shopping district and silently wished, "Please, I know that JoJo is like me, please just let me know I'm not alone in this world."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Big shout-out to ****NEW New New Requiem Jacoud ACT XIII Over Heaven for the Stand ideas for 'Stuck Like Glue' and 'Dark Side'**

**White Rabbit, Stuck Like Glue, and Dark Side - Part 1**

"Usagi-chan! Where've you been?" The shrill voice of a tall girl with bright green hair filled the classroom in Japanese. Usagi felt her knuckles rapping against her forehead while she was leaning forward in her seat with her chin on her fist. She snapped to attention just in time to tune in to her friend's hails. "Yooo, Earth to Usagi-chan! Are we going to get lunch or not?"

Usagi leaned back in her seat lethargically, as if even the tiniest of shifts in position were a tax on her very soul. "Mmm, nah, I'm not really hungry today..." It wasn't entirely untrue. She hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, but the gnawing hunger seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It's been two whole days since Jodie and her brother came back from their mysterious absence. Something was wrong with Jodie, she could feel it. She hoped against hope that maybe her new friend would open up to her. Shamelessly, she would have admitted, she hoped to find an excuse to get closer to Joshua, whom she was absolutely sure had the same sort of 'imaginary powers' that she did.

Her green-haired friend wasted no time in walking out of the room. "Suit yourself," she practically sang, "I'm heading down to that Sushi place on Green St."

There was nobody left in the classroom to talk to, except for Jodie. She was sitting only a few seats away, nervously poking at a tupperware container full of pickles. On any other day she would have been done eating and playing on her phone by now, but not today. Today, she had something heavy on her mind, but all of Usagi's attempts to extract the details from her had been met with a stone wall of secrecy she suspected had something to do with her family, and by consequence, her brother Joshua.

"It's been too long," she thought, "I'm tired of waiting. It's time to make something happen!" She reached out her left hand and a ghostly white hand extended out of it. It looked almost animalistic in form, and grasped the pickle that Jodie was in the middle of biting. The two locked eyes, sharing a brief moment of assessing the situation. Both girls jumped out of their seats, shouting at each other.

"I was right, you _can_ see my 'imaginary power'!"

"What's going on, did Hollywood Undead send you?"

The two spoke over each other. Usagi recalled her 'imaginary' hand as Jodie assumed a fighting stance. Jodie spoke first. "I'm only gonna ask you this once, and I want a truthful answer: are you my friend, or were you sent to kill me?"

It was beginning to make sense: the odd attitude, the sudden distance, something happened to Jodie, and possibly to Joshua, that caused her to be able to see this 'imaginary friend'. Usagi was sure of it, that her friend was in need of someone who could understand her. Usagi lowered her stance and spoke softly. "Jodie, of course I'm your friend, how could you even ask me that?"

Jodie looked away. "Sorry, I guess being new around here… I just wasn't sure."

"You're an awful liar." Usagi stepped closer. "Nobody just asks if their friend is going to kill them. Tell me what's happening, this has something to do with your family, doesn't it?"

Jodie nodded her head. "There are dangerous things happening in this town, and somehow it's linked to our 'Stands'."

Usagi cocked her head to the side. "Is that what these things are called? 'Stands'?"

Jodie sighed, "Of course, I should probably run you through the ropes..."

A pair of binoculars poked out of the leaves of a tree just outside the window of class 1-B. Behind those binoculars were the prying eyes of their teacher, Masahiro. He whispered to himself during his spying on Usagi. "So, she has the same powers that I do, and so does that Jordain-chan… Interesting." He lowered his binoculars, exposing his beady eyes and fat face. "Oh my sweet Usagi-chan… I'll make you mine, but not with that interloper here." He made his way out of the tree, landing on his feet with no trouble. He giggled, as if unable to contain his giddy excitement. "Oh I can practically taste those youthful lips, lelolelolelo..."

"Hey, what are you doing, Masahiro-san?" There was a single girl from his class. Masahiro had no idea how long she had been watching him, but she had surely seen his spying on his own classroom.

"Is something that matter? You know girls like yourself shouldn't be poking your noses into grown-ups' business."

"It's just that… well, you said you would help me understand today's material during lunch, but you weren't in your office and I couldn't find you, so I-"

"And what makes you think I should bother giving you any attention? If you needed to understand the lecture you should've been paying more attention in class!"

"I'm sorry!" The girl ran off, nearly in tears. Masahiro grunted and lifted his right hand, a thick yellow substance dripped from his index finger. "Perhaps I should make my move today."

"Yes, my siblings are back at school now." John sat on a rocking chair on the front porch of his Father's house and smoked a cigarette while he spoke to a Speedwagon representative on his smartphone. "No, dad's out shopping. Did I hear correctly that you were sending a 'bodyguard'?"

The other voice spoke calmly. "Yes, though we've not made any major movements. Actually the 'bodyguard' has been stationed in Sakuraba for several years now. It's convenient that his first assignment doesn't require him to move."

John took a long drag from his cigarette. "Well who is it?"

"He's a teacher, and a Stand User. He goes by Masahiro Akira-that's family name: Masahiro for us non-Japanese speakers."

John put out his smoke in the ashtray. "Alright, I'll let dad know. Do you care if I do some looking into this teacher myself?"

"Not at all, call if you need help. We have no idea when the next 'assassin' may attack."

John hung up the phone and stepped back into the house. "Masahiro… I think that's Jodie's homeroom teacher."

"I hope I can trust him to keep an eye on her."

The final bell had rung, the school had nearly emptied. Jodie and Usagi had been placed, either by luck or by fate, on cleaning duty that afternoon. Jodie had earlier filled in Usagi in on the nature of Stands, although she had left out the parts about the Joestar lineage, the things that even she wasn't quite sure she understood entirely.

The two of them wiped off the desks together alone, engaging in awkward small-talk as they did, a form of distraction from the matter of 'stands' and 'assassins'. "I never know if I'm supposed to be using the first name or the last name, am I supposed to call you Shiroko-chan or Usagi?"

Usagi laughed at the question. Of course it wasn't something she was used to hearing, almost everyone in Sakuraba had some background in the language. "You can call me whatever. And what about you? Do you mind if I call you Jordain-san?"

Jodie cringed at the notion. "Uhh, just kinda weird, don't you think? Mixing languages like that?" She finished wiping off the desk and moved to the next one over. "I guess that's the type of thing Joshua is good for, knowing that kind of stuff. If you gotta call me something, why not just go with something western, like JoJo."

Usagi looked up suddenly, remembering what it was that Joshua said the day they met. "JoJo?"

"Yeah, like **Jo**die **Jo**rdain? So it's JoJo. My mom used to call me that."

"Your brother says he goes by that name too." Usagi giggled.

"That dick..."

"Is there something between you and Joshua? Do you really hate him that much?"

Jodie went over to a window and placed her hand on the glass. "I don't hate him, he's just annoying. Everywhere I go he's gotta be looming over everything like the Little Weeb that Could. What, I can't even have my nickname anymore, he's gotta have that too?" She walked back over to the desk she was cleaning, not caring for the wet spot she had left on the window. "And now all I hear out of you is asking about Joshua. What, are you sweet on him?"

Usagi had no time to answer. The classroom door opened, and a familiar face entered. "Girls, how's the cleaning coming along?" It was Masahiro, but something about him, Usagi noticed, seemed off.

Jodie answered. "Almost done, you know this isn't something I've ever had to do before."

Masahiro stepped further into the room, and the bad feeling Usagi felt grew stronger. "Well that's alright, you can't expect anyone to do things perfectly the first time." He turned to face Jodie. "By the way, I've noticed you haven't been at school for a couple of days, I was hoping to hear that you're alright, and that it won't become a habit."

"W-well, there was a family emergency… I don't think it's going to be a problem sir." Jodie almost stammered at the end. Clearly she was feeling the same awkward vibe that Usagi sensed.

"Oh I know, but it seems to be leading to some nasty habits." As Masahiro spoke, a translucent spider appeared on Jodie's shoulder. And then another, and another. Her shoulders were covered in spiders before Usagi could even blink.

"JoJo! Your shoulders!" Usagi shouted instinctively in Japanese as she recoiled from the sight of the infestation. Jodie, more confused than anything, was powerless to stop the spiders from producing a thick yellow liquid. Before long, her head was entirely wrapped up, her arms were bound. She summoned her Stand, Street Violin, but to no avail; the black-and-white angelic construct had her arms trapped at her side as the same adhesive that entrapped Jodie entrapped her Stand. Within seconds, she was entirely and helplessly cocooned.

"What have you done to JoJo? Answer me, Masahiro-sensei!" Though she tried to sound commanding, Usagi could hear the stammering in her voice. This was clearly a 'Stand Attack', but without experience, she was certain she stood no chance. "What did you do to JoJo?"

Masahiro threw the cocoon containing JoJo against the whiteboard where it stuck. "I simply removed an obstacle between us, sweet, sweet Shiroko-chan. Now we're all alone, and we can be together, where society can't judge us!"

It took Usagi all the strength she could muster not to vomit. "Masahiro-sensei, you're acting strange. You've always been protective of your students, you would never do something like this!"

Masahiro reached out his hand and grabbed onto hers, trying to pull her closer. Shere his hand gripped her wrist, those yellow spiders appeared again, rapidly spreading glue across her arm. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I only have eyes for sweet, dear Shiroko-chan." Shiroko broke away from his grip and fell backward into a bucket of water. She noticed as she stood up that the glue had disintegrated completely in the water. "Such a naughty student, that Jodie. If she comes between us, she'll just have to die."

"White Rabbit!" Usagi shouted and raised her fists in a boxer's stance. As she did, the full form of her Stand manifested before her. It looked vaguely humanoid, with oversized hands and feet that appeared rabbit-like, as if wearing pieces of a mascot's costume. The head was more akin to a rabbit's, with massive floppy ears. The torso was clearly feminine in shape, and it wore a black bowtie. At either hip were small dots, perfectly round and completely black, allowing no light to reflect off of them. The stand had bright red eyes. "I've never had to fight another Stand before, but I know how my powers work," she warned, "and if you don't explain yourself and free Jodie right now, I'm gonna fight you."

Masahiro merely smiled. "Outgoing and spunky, so full of life, that's what I respect about you, Shiroko-chan! Let's see then if your Stand can match my 'Stuck Like Glue'!" He raised his hands and revealed behind him a massive translucent yellow and green tarantula, whose abdomen was covered in tiny spiders. "My adhesive can adhere to any solid surface and render even your Stand inoperable." He lunged forward, launching his glue from his hands. Usagi rolled to the side, narrowly escaping as a glob of adhesive bubbled to life right where she had been standing.

"Raaa!" Usagi threw a punch and her Stand did the same, connecting squarely with Masahiro's jaw. "Gotcha!" Her celebration was short-lived as she realized that her left hand was now covered in glue, and suddenly she became acutely aware that Jodie likely couldn't breathe under her cocoon. If Usagi couldn't defeat this enemy, her new friend would suffocate.

"Looks like you've finally realized that I have the upper hand! And to think that for all these years I've only ever used my stand to fix ripped-out pages from textbooks! What's the point in being a SPW operative if I can't use my powers for myself?"

"Wait, the Speedwagon Foundation?" Usagi had no time to question what was happening, she had bigger problems. "You'll talk after I beat some sense into you! White Rabbit!" Her stand rushed forward, striking the wall behind Masahiro as he dodged deftly to the right.

Masahiro suddenly noticed that there was a black spot on the floor, and that the bucket of water was gone. "Hmm? What's this?" From the wall behind him, the bucket spilled onto the cocoon containing Jodie. The adhesive melted away just enough for her to breathe, and fortunately she was still conscious.

"Street Violin!" Jodie shouted, summoning forth her Stand. The porcelain-faced angel, unable to move a limb, fell against the floor, singing a high note as she did so. The note melted into the floor tiles and erupted from beneath Masahiro, launching him into the air.

Masahiro laughed at the development. "You fools! Do you know what you've done?" He and his tarantula stand spun in the air, spraying tiny spiders all over the room, before long, Jodie was once again entombed in glue, and Usagi's limbs were slowly being caked in it as well. "I've won, so please stop struggling. We can be together after she's dead!"

Usagi turned around and threw a flurry of punches with a pulsing, heart-pumping cry of "Rabirabirabirabirabirabi! Rabiiiii!" She crushed the glass of the window and leapt out, her Stand yanking away the hole in the floor and returning it to the holster on her right hip as they dove away.

Fear entered Masahiro's eyes. He shouted "No! Shiroko!" He ran to the edge of the room from where his beloved student had leapt. All he saw on the concrete one story below was a black spot. "What the-"

Before he could recognize the danger, Usagi and White Rabbit emerged from the hole on the wall, just above Jodie's cocoon, and utilizing the momentum of their fall delivered a powerful kick to the back of Masahiro's head. Usagi landed on her feet following the kick, and Masahiro's head slammed into the metal window frame, knocking him out cold.

As Masahiro lost consciousness, two things happened. First, all of the glue disappeared as his Stand dispersed. Second, a sealed envelope emerged from his skull. Without hesitation, Usagi opened the envelope and saw two pictures.

The first picture was of Masahiro standing happily beside his homeroom class, words like 'protect' and 'nourish' were written in Kanji all around the perimeter. Usagi clearly remembered from the beginning of the year, her teacher wanted to commemorate the first day of school with a class photo-shoot. The second was clearly the same picture, but most of the class had been removed. All that remained was Usagi and Masahiro. The Kanji around the sides had changed as well, to words like 'desire', 'youth' and 'lust'.

Jodie stepped up behind her, looking at the two photos. "I think I get it."

Usagi nodded. "I do too, there was another Stand User, and he manipulated Masahiro-sensei's feelings about this photo to turn him into some kind of creepy pervert." She looked over to Masahiro slumped uncomfortably against the wall. "Poor Masahiro-sensei, maybe I shouldn't have kicked him so hard..."

Jodie shook her head. "If you hadn't, his head might still be scrambled."

Usagi looked around the room warily. "But where would the other user be?"

"Right here girls, hehehe." A round boy with a bowl cut entered the room, leaning against the door like some kind of 1970's casanova. "Went a bit sideways, I was gonna jump in and save you after Jodie bit the dust. But I guess the cat's out of the bag." He lifted up an instant-print camera and snapped a picture of the three of them in the room. "See, now all I gotta do is mess with your thoughts, hehehe. He said after Jordain was dead, I could have you all to myself, sweetie, and that was his only condition for giving me my Stand: 'Dark Side'."

The two girls gave each other a knowing look.

The pudgy boy was launched out the broken window and into the water fountain below. He suffered several dozen fractures, and was shortly afterward admitted to a SPW-sponsored hospital, where he would both be treated for his wounds and interrogated for his attempt on Jodie's life.

Masahiro would awaken some time later with a headache, and the situation would be explained to him by the two kind student sho did not blame him for what he had done.

"It's such an underwhelming power, wouldn't you say, Marcie?" The purple-haired man sat by himself on a pure white sofa, eating grapes like some sort of roman emperor. His well-dressed attendant stood dutifully by the door, obediently _not_ answering what was clearly a rhetorical question. "The power to corrupt and twist a person's emotions into something so much darker. I think, unfortunately, we have miscalculated. In our haste to be rid of the Joestar Bloodline, we have offered to them a 'victory'. What they shall 'gain' from our own 'loss' is determined only by how we respond in turn, do you understand Marcie?"

That was her cue. "Of course, I think we can trust even Hollywood Undead with an order that simple."

"Don't beat around the bush; I want you to say word for word what my plan is, so as not to be confused by a lack of communication."

"Hollywood Undead will kill the boy before he can give the Foundation any information."

"And we have learned a valuable 'lesson'. In this way, even a failure can be a victory. What we 'lose' in a selfish brat, is what we 'gain' in an opportunity. Hollywood Undead will be in a perfect position to redeem himself. If he has truly 'gained' anything from his abysmal failures, he will be more than capable of springing the trap that laid itself."

"Truly, Master, your genius is boundless."

He idly scratched at the scar on his neck. "I would suggest that you stop with such banal praise, Marcie. Flattery is unbecoming of a woman of action. My plan may yet fail, I may yet 'lose', it is the long game we play. What, in the long run, shall we stand to 'gain' if we take our 'losses' strategically."


End file.
